ASSIGNMENT 1

1
e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

MIS 305

Enterprise Information System

Spring, 2011

Submitted to

Md. Ziaul Haque

Lecturer

Department of Business Administration

East West University

Submitted by

Name: Mahbub Zaman Ashrafi

ID# 2009-1-10-106

Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Letter of Transcript

March 2, 2011
2
Md. Ziaul Haque
Lecturer
Department of Business Administration
East West University

Subject: Submission of Assignment

Dear Sir:

Here is the assignment on “e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems” that I
am supposed to do for the Enterprise Information Systems (MIS-305) course.

As you will see, our observations pointed out to some specific aspects of e-Purjee such as its history,
present condition, problems, prospects so on. Through this assignment I tried to explore these aspects to
a certain extent. This assignment really helped me to know about the Purjee. Actually I had no idea
what really the word Purjee means. And it also helps me to understand the system how the e-Purjee
works.

I appreciate having this assignment. I really enjoyed myself while doing this assignment.

I am grateful to you for assigning me such a report. I am looking forward to your evaluation.

Sincerely Yours,

Mahbub Zaman Ashrafi

ID # 2009-1-10-106
March 2, 2011

Department of Business Studies

East West University

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Table of content
3
Name of Topic Page Number

1. Introduction 4

2. History 5

3. Present condition 6

4. Problems 10

5. Prospects 11

6. Recommendation 12

7. Conclusion 13

8. Reference 14

March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Introduction

The word Purjee

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The first thing came in my mind is what is Purjee? Like me the word Purjee was very much unfamiliar
for many of us. It doesn’t bring that much attention to our life. But actually it means a lot for both us
and those people life their life cultivating sugarcane. What is Purjee? Purjee is a word which refers
some kind of order or asking to farmers to deliver their sugar cans. The Purjee actually a paper which
contains name of farmer, pass book no, address, unit of sugarcanes to deliver and in how many days a
farmer have to deliver it. Normally sugar mills send Purjee to farmers when the sugarcanes are ready to
crush.

Need of Purjee

Now lot of might think why do we need Purjee or in other word whey do sugar mills have to ask to
deliver sugar can. Why not the farmers deliver when their sugarcanes are ready?

The answer lies in the sugarcanes. Sugarcanes are such type of crop which contains water and sugar
inside of it. The moment you cut it from the soul it will start loosing its water inside it. And without
this water it is not possible extract sugar by crushing it. On other word it will be useless. So after
plucking sugarcanes farmer have to deliver and super mills have to crush it in order to get maximum
sugar out of it.

Our age old sugar mills don’t have the sufficient machineries so that they can crush all the sugarcanes
at a time. Or whenever the farmer comes up with their sugarcane they cant purchase it because they
don’t have that much crushing machineries neither they can’t storage it because as long they will store
it in ware house it will loose its productivity . Or even if the sugar mills want to store it they can’t
because they don’t have enough facility to store it.
March 2, 2011

That’s where the idea of Purjee came in. Because as long as the sugar cans are in the field its safe there
and when the sugar mills need sugar can they ask for it they ask to farmers to deliver. But there is a
problem too. To understand this problem we need to analyze the history, we need to know how this age
old Purjee system works.

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

 History

In the website of Digital Bangladesh they said “Long before the time of independence, the Purjee
system was introduced”. Purjee is a piece of paper delivered by the mills employee to farmers. Mills
5
ask for sugarcane by sending Purjee. Normally after issuing date of Purjee mills expect to get the
sugarcane with in 3 days. With in 3 days farmer has to deliver his/her sugarcane. So in graphically it’s
like that.

Deliver it
Thorugh Farmer
Sugarmills Issue Farmer gets the Farmer pluck the
massenger to deliver the
Purjee Purjee sugarcane
farmer hand to Sugercane
hand

Fig 1: The standard process of delivering Purjee and in return getting sugarcane.

But not everything is that simple. Generally it’s a good idea but when it comes to rural area it very
difficult. Country like Bangladesh where there are lacks of transportation, lack of man power, lack of
responsibility, corruption and there is lots of problem that cause serious damage in the Purjee system.

It’s clear that there are some problems in this system lets take some of it:

1. Lack of man power farmer might not get the Purjee on time
2. Lack of good transportation farmer might not get Purjee on time.
3. Lack of responsibility of deliver might cause the same situation.
4. Because of corruption the deliver might sell the Purjee to another person.
5. Farmer might not present at time of delivering Purjee as a result the Purjee will not deliver.
6. Though farmer gets the Purjee on time he/she might not deliver on time and blame that he
didn’t get the Purjee which cause loss off sugar mills.
7. This hand to hand delivery system is costly because sugar mills have to pay for their employee.
March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Present condition

Because of the limitation that the age old Purjee system has our government comes up with a new idea.
The new idea is to using the information technology. And this new Purjee system is called e-Purjee.
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Today total 15 sugar mills are using e-Purjee system including Rajshahi, Rangpur, Kushtia, Panchagar
etc. The idea of e-Purjee is very simple if you thinks straight. But inside it it’s a bit complex actually.

e-Purjee

First of all e-Purjee is nothing but replacing the manually delivered paper Purjee bye using mobile
Short Massage Service (SMS). As we talked in the first part of this paper that Purjee is nothing but a
paper, which is asking farmers to deliver his/her sugarcane with in three days. Like old fashioned
Purjee this e-Purjee also ask for the sugarcane. But in spite of manually delivering the paper e-Purjee
use SMS.

Now let’s take a look how e-Purjee works graphically.

Sugar mills issue He/She deliver

Farmer got a Farmer pluck
sugarcane on
e-Purjee SMS sugarcane
time

Fig 2: Standard process of delivering e-Purjee and in return sugar mills gets the sugarcane.

March 2, 2011

Fig 3: Real life example of e Purjee

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

The process we have seen in the above fig is nothing but a basic model of e-Purjee. But to do this
whole process we have to look deep inside. And have to consider the environment so that we will
understand how the whole process works.
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Fist of all every sugar mills have to set up an e Purjee system. To set up an e-Purjee system they need:

Computer
&
e-Purjee 3 trained
software personnel

Internet
Connection

e -Purjee System

Fig 4: Elements that require for complete e-Purjee System

March 2, 2011

Before starting the e Purjee system every farmer trained to get use to this e-Purjee system. Bangladesh
Food & Sugar Industry conducted these training programs. They consult with the farmers and sugar

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

mills about the problem of traditional system, and the prospect of the upcoming new system. Country
like Bangladesh where information and technology is not that used among general people it was
important to make them understand the procedures.
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Government divided the sugarcane farmers into different unit, center & zone. There are 80-120 units in
every sugar mills. In every unit there is one cane development assistant (CDA) who is in chare of each
of his unit. There are total 371 units in total. Every unit consists of 100-200 farmers. Two-three units
together make a center. Every center managed by center in charge. After the training process
government collected the Information of the farmers. And every sugar mills stored these information
on there servers.

When framers are familiar and sugar mills are ready with the technology and trained manpower. In the
crushing time of sugarcane in spite of delivering traditional hand to hand delivering Purjee sugar mills
use technology the send SMS to the main server of e-Purjee system, that they need sugarcane. Then
form the main server the respective farmers of this sugar mills are notified that they have to deliver the
sugarcane with in 3 days. This massage also contain name of farmers, pass book number, how many
sugarcane he/she have to deliver, where to deliver.

Not only the delivering the sugarcane but also getting payment of there sugarcane, getting loan,
fertilizer and other supports are possible through this e-Purjee system.

March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Let’s take an inside look of total e-Purjee system:

• Combintaion of
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• Computer
• E-Purjee software
• Internet Connection
e-Purjee system • 3 trained personnel
• Scanner (Optional)

• Suger mills collects data of all of its units farmers (there are usally 80-120 unit in each sugar mills.)
• Collected data stored in to the server of respective sugar mills.
Data collection

• Crushing season starts

• Sugar mills check how many sugarcane they need every day.
• After the calculation accordig to their need they order in to the main server for sending SMS in to the
farmer.
Delivering the • After the main server get the order of sending SMS to farmer main server send the SMS to farmer and
e-Purjee keep those data about farmers.

• e-Purjee not only help sugar mills to get sugarcane or help farmers to inform about delivering it also
help farmers to get paid easily.
• When a farmer provide sugarcane in time sugar mills sarver save those data about the farmers. And
Payment when payment time comes they sugar mills informs farmer to collect the payment.
•Not only the payment but also information about loan, fartilizer, any kind of information can be retrive
&
through this e-Purjee system.
Help

March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Now let’s take a look at the technical side of this e Purjee system (In sense of MIS)
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MIS team use e-Purjee sofware to After searching the available
Superior ask MIS team to send search which farmers are available farmers, MIS team order using sugar
e-Purjee to farmers when needed. for sending e-Purjee (those who are mills computer to send e-Purjee to
available to deliver sugarcane.) available farmers.

After reciving the information about

Sugar mills computer (sub server)
the farmers, central server send
sends this information to central
SMS to respective mibole operators
server. Which contain information And finally mobile operators send
server according to farmers phone
about farmers those should be SMS to ievery farmers cell phone.
numbers . Central server connecter
reciving the e-Purjee. Both these
with sub server and mobile operator
sarver connected through internet.
through internet.

Fig 5: Technical side of this e Purjee system (In sense of MIS)

In 2009 to 2010, 15 sugar mills have been digitalized and successfully using the e-Purjee system. These
sugar mills didn’t stops for one day after implementing e-Purjee where it was very usual that because of
lack of sugar mills is use to stops its production.

Problems of e Purjee

Like any other technological advancement in place of age old traditional process creates problem so
March 2, 2011

does e Purjee. Problems that can be solve. Problems are:

1. Mobiles are costly even if it’s very cheap now a days but not every farmer might not have the
capability of buying cell phone or maintain cell phone.
2. Because of lack of knowledge not every farmer can operate mobile phone.
e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems
 3. There are only few farmers who know English and main medium of mobile language is English

4.
so there is lack of communication gap.
In the rural areas mobile network is not as good as we use to in urban area.
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5. Mobile operators might not feel interested or might charge extra for the service. In some extend
they might make delay on forwarding the SMS.
6. In rural areas there are lack of electricity in rural are because mobile is an electronic device
farmers might not able to receive the SMS on time.
7. Electronic devices are vulnerable because of some device failure in sugar mills they might not
send e Purjee on time which could be devastating.
8. Not only device failure but also virus, attack by Black Hat Hacker might cause even farther
damage that beyond imagination. For example: by hacking For example: by hacking the system
hacker might be ask farmers to deliver sugarcanes but while they will try to deliver it would
create a chaos.
9. Lack of trained operator on mills could create same problem.
10. This e Purjee system need internet connection and because mills normally rural areas so better
internet connection would be a matter that mills should worry about and though it is connected
there is no guarantee of connection when needed.

Prospects

Today’s world is fast now a days delivering Purjee through hand to hand manually is unimaginable,
though its bit late but we have the technology now. This technology will come up with new dimensions
here are some future possibilities

1. This e Purjee system will increase the productivity of sugarcanes because sugarcanes will be
crushed on time.
2. It will help sugar mills to save their cost of delivering traditional Purjee
March 2, 2011

3. It will help farmers to pluck sugarcane on time and delivering without any hassle and baseless.
4. It will help sugar mills to continue their operation continuously with out any break.
5. Any kind of emergency situation sugar mills can contract with farmers to not deliver the
sugarcanes so that both farmers and sugar mills can save the loss.

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

 6. This e Purjee system will generate a sound and accurate data of total sugar and sugarcane
production which is important for research. 12
7. e Purjee system will help government against corruption by delivering the Purjee to the right
farmer.
8. This system will help farmers collect their payment, loan, fertilizer and any kind of assistance
they need very easily.
9. Speaking of assistance this project will help farmers to interact more with government.
10. This idea can bring more satisfaction on farmers as a result they will be encouraged to
producing sugarcane more.
11. Not only on the filed of sugarcane this idea can be used in any kind of sector like jute,
vegetable, rice etc.
12. It could help government to keep control of products price by making middle mans out of play.
Because through this system farmers can directly sell to government or retailers in some extent.
13. Not only delivering Purjee but also this technology can help farmers to get fair amount of price
while selling the sugarcanes and it’s true for all kind of products.
14. And more importantly this kind of new innovation will create an inspiration among the farmer
so they will feel the importance of education as well as importance of technology, technology
that can solve many problems.

Recommendations

The problems of this new e-Purjee system should be solved. Developers of this system should consider
the target users; target users are rural peoples who have barely education. Some problems can be solved
easily by the developers of this e-Purjee system and some needs assistance of government.

Recommendations are:
March 2, 2011

1. Government should think of giving subsidiary on purchasing cell phone.

2. Mobile operators should not charge farmers for this facility rather government should pay it.
3. Farmers should be trained on using mobile and basic Engilsh.
4. E-Purjee SMS should be in Bangla.
5. Mobile networks should be better.
e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems
 these matters.
7. Because electricity is unreachable and its not possible provide electricity urgently but
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6. To make mobile operator interested government should take step or BTRC should issue rule on

government should think of providing small solar device so that mobiles can be recharged.
8. There always should be back up computers and other devices so that device failure will not
create chaos.
9. The security of e-Purjee should be very high because without it farmers will loose hope. There
should be trained people for maintaining the security of main and sub servers against hackers.
And they should conduct inspection on sugar mills frequently.
10. Sugar mills operators should be trained to complete the required work.
11. Availability of high speed internet and there should be back up on internet connection in case of
emergency.
12. And more importantly government should be pro active and egger to help.

Conclusion

When the world is running fast through information and technology we are starting to introduce with it.
Though too late to implement these kind of technology but good thing is we are thinking digital. Even
our farmers who barely have education are welcoming the change of the age old technology. They are
not afraid that’s where our strength we are not afraid of change that’s why we can achieve the toughest
goals what we need is the minimum assistance from the government. Assistance that will create new
innovation like e-Purjee.

Surely farmers and sugar mills will be benefited by this new technology. This e-Purjee will make their
life easy and will motivate them. The proper use of resources will be ensuring. And the general
consumer will beneficial. Though this system is not fool proof, eventually no system is. But we have to
try at least.
March 2, 2011

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems

Reference

1. Digital Bangladesh. (2010) Digital Purjee: History, Background, Future, [Online],

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Available: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=450

[Accessed: 26 February 2011]

2. Digital Bangladesh. (2010) Digital Purjee: How E-Purjee Implemented, [Online],

Available: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=462

[Accessed: 26 February 2011]

3. Digital Bangladesh. (2010) Success Story: A SMS has changed our lives, [Online],

Available: http://www.digitalbangladesh.gov.bd/blog.php?ID=452

[Accessed: 26 February 2011]

4. Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industry e-Purjee Inauguration Ceremony, comjagat0. (2010).

Inauguration Ceremony of E-Purjee activities 1. [Online Video]. December, 24th.

Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blLhRxC5n-0.

[Accessed: 26 February 2011]

th
5. Chaudhary, N. (2011). . Prothom-Alo.28 January. P36

6. Digital Sugarcane Procurement System (2010) Implementation Activity [Online]. Available

March 2, 2011

from: http://www.epurjee.info/Implementation.php

[Accessed: 26 February 2011]

e-Purjee & its Implementation in Bangladesh: Prospects & Problems